Warhammer 40k Forum and Wargaming Forums banner

Meltaguns, what's in a name?

1K views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  Midge913 
#1 ·
I don't know why this is only dawning on me now, but doesn't the name "Melta" sound like something an ork would call the weapon? Was there ever any explanation of the naming convention for it? The earliest rulebook I had was 3rd edition so maybe this goes back to 2nd or RT. If anyone could shed some light on it that would be cool.
 
#3 ·
The name may come from the largest group of peoplw who used it when it was made, so I imagine that it would have been the soldiers of the Imperial Army, during the Great Crusade, who would have given it its common name. Soldiers are fairly direct when describing a weapon; unless they can be funny or rude instead! So 'melta' gets across with no quibbles what the damn thing does.
Besides, other names for it, also Guard-derived, are 'Cooker' and 'Sun Gun'.

GFP
 
#5 ·
It was indeed first called a fusion gun... along with the graviton gun, webber and needler they have passed into myth on the 40k battlefield...

The term became Melta gun not fusion however very quickly due to the inception of another weapon.... the MULTI MELTA... there was never a MULTI FUSION GUN. Damn though there should have been... along with a WAVE MOTION GUN... that saved the day every episode! Oh wait... different universe. :)

You can still find harlequin figures with Webbers in the RT range, and although it was never depicted to my knoweldge in metal... the graviton gun resembled the RT era flamer in some regards.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top